Be Careful What You Wish for

By Tim McCanless

Why it is when the gay community creates or promotes a certain style, the straight community grabs hold of it and runs it into the ground and then nothing is ever heard from it again (except for disco)? This creates a question in my mind. Even though I am an advocate of legalizing same sex marriage, what will happen when we are no longer special? When the new rubs off and we are just as common as the folks next door? How will we find ways to express our individuality?

Folks around here have a long way to go, but look at what is on television; Queer eye for the Straight guy's Carson Kressley is now spokesperson for Goldfish Crackers and Armani. Thom Filicia has thrown Kirstey Alley over the side to pimp Pier One Imports. What about Will and Grace? We are in the average American household on prime time television, 7 nights a week. We have Gay HBO and Showtime channels, Gay businesses, restaurants, publications and much more. So how far will this trend go?

On Friday evening, June 27, 1969, the New York City tactical police force raided a popular Greenwich Village gay bar, the Stonewall Inn. Raids were not unusual in 1969; in fact, they were conducted regularly without much resistance. However, that night the street erupted into violent protest as the crowds in the bar fought back. The backlash and several nights of protest that followed have come to be known as the Stonewall Riots.

Prior to that summer there was little public expression of the lives and experiences of gays and lesbians. The Stonewall Riots marked the beginning of the gay liberation movement that has transformed the oppression of gays and lesbians into calls for pride and action. In the past twenty-five years we have all been witness to an astonishing flowering of gay culture that has changed this country and beyond, forever.

But the popularity of being gay has transcended into Metrosexuals that has even been parodied by those scoundrels from South Park. Sure, everyone can look good with a haircut and a facial but; there is more to it than that. We truly are different in many ways. We have different spending habits, we have different relationships and we look at life differently than our heterosexual neighbors.

As much as we would like to be the accepted by everyone else, I feel the best we can do is to be ourselves and set a good example for those who do not understand who we are and what we are all about. I don't think the Gay Pride Parade is the answer to that question, the news commentators only interview the extreme individuals, the ones that stick out as it were, not the average gay Joe on the street.

I believe that it is possible to co-exist in the world together with respect and understanding. Asking for equal rights is in my opinion a fair thing to ask, but I don't want anything special, and I don't want to be looked at as an outcast, I just want to be able to be comfortable in the fact that I am special and will always be.